Preseason Power Rankings No. 4: New England Patriots

Posted by Josh Alper on July 21, 2014, 9:00 AM EST

AP

The Patriots were back in the AFC Championship Game last year, but their bid for another Super Bowl title were dashed by the Broncos.

Making it there was a credit to coach Bill Belichick’s adaptability as he had to fill holes created by injuries while finding a way to keep the offense moving in spite of an underwhelming season by Tom Brady’s wide receivers. That stopped against Denver, but the Patriots made it clear they have designs on staying on top in the AFC East.

They signed cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner in hopes of stopping the revolving door at that position, with the Revis acquisition and a growing group of talent in the front seven leading to thoughts of the best Patriots defense in several years.

There were no such additions to the offense, but the hope is that the return to health of tight end Rob Gronkowski serves the same purpose.

Strengths.

When Gronkowski was healthy last season, the Patriots had one of the most potent offenses in the league. When he was out, they weren’t close to the same level as a team and Brady wasn’t as effective as a quarterback. Whether Gronk can stay healthy for an entire year is a matter of some debate, but his impact on the team is certain.

The Patriots had a pretty good defense last season without Revis. Adding one of the best cornerbacks in the game as he looks to restore some luster after a forgettable year in Tampa has the potential to move the defense from pretty good to great in a shift that the Pats would love to see.

Revis won’t be doing it alone, though. Linebacker Jerod Mayo was lost after the sixth week of the season because of a torn pectoral muscle and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork’s torn Achilles made him a bystander as well. Getting both back to go with Jamie Collins, Donta’ Hightower, Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich would make for one of the best front sevens in the conference.

The permanent move to safety was a good one for Devin McCourty, who turned in an excellent year in 2013. With better cornerback play expected, McCourty could be deployed in a more aggressive manner this time around.

Weaknesses.

Julian Edelman caught a lot of passes, but the rest of the wide receivers left something to be desired last season. The Patriots need Danny Amendola to remain on the field and they’d like to see the potential of Aaron Dobson, Kenbrell Thompkins or Josh Boyce translated into actual production. Without those developments, the Patriots will be relying heavily on Gronkowski remaining healthy once again this year.

Brady was sacked 40 times last year, the second-most of his career, and that number will need to come down this season. Center and right guard are the spots most in need of improvement as Ryan Wendell and Dan Connolly were weak links last year.

LeGarrette Blount wasn’t re-signed as a free agent, leaving the Patriots without their battering ram in the backfield from last year. Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen are on hand, so there’s no reason to panic although the team’s versatility took a little bit of a hit with Blount’s departure.

If everyone is healthy, the defensive line should be pretty good. Vince Wilfork, Tommy Kelly, Will Smith and first-round pick Dominique Easley are all returning from serious injuries, though, and the depth isn’t strong enough to keep pressure on opposing quarterbacks if they aren’t in the game.

Changes.

We’ll get to the changes that have been made in a second, right after we discuss the changes that the Patriots hope will take place. After losing Gronkowski, Mayo, Wilfork, Kelly and Sebastian Vollmer to season-ending injuries last year, the Patriots will be hoping that simply being healthier will allow them to push their way back to the top of the conference.

The Pats added three offensive linemen in the draft — center Bryan Stork, tackle Cameron Fleming and guard Jon Halapio — to restock with some young depth up front.

Browner will serve a suspension to start the year, so it will be some time before he and Revis can be deployed as a tandem. Logan Ryan, Kyle Arrington and Alfonzo Dennard will be on hand to fill in and then fill out the sub packages.

Brandon LaFell was signed as a free agent after playing out his contract with the Panthers. There’s probably more upside with the younger receivers, but the Pats will take any help they can get at the position after last season.

Camp Battles.

Steve Gregory is gone, leaving an opening at safety next to McCourty. Patrick Chung is back after a spell with the Eagles and he’ll join Duron Harmon, Tavon Wilson, Kanorris Davis and rookie Jemea Thomas at the position. Harmon looks like the first choice heading into camp.

The Patriots drafted running back James White in the fourth round and he’ll likely vie with Brandon Bolden for backfield snaps left up for graps after Blount’s departure. Given the fluid nature of running back situations, he could wind up with even more than that if things break right.

New England selected quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round, setting up a competition with Ryan Mallett for backup duties and the role as unofficial heir to Brady.

Prospects.

The Patriots have advanced at least as far as the conference title game in each of the last three seasons. When you survey the AFC at this point, another trip to that round feels like the expectation once again in New England.

We can’t know which Patriots might be injured this season or which teams might come together to form a whole better than anyone is predicting in July, but, outside of Denver, there aren’t any teams in the conference that are safe bets to be better than the Patriots. And there certainly aren’t any in the AFC East, where the question again appears to be how many weeks it will take for the Pats to sew up the crown.

Getting beyond the conference title game and earning another Lombardi Trophy is a different matter, however. They’ll need better health than last season, development from a young receiver or two and no noticeable slippage from key veterans to add a fourth ring for the Belichick era.

There’s a lot that needs to break right, but the Patriots are in position to capitalize if things do go that way.

” but the Patriots made it clear they have designs on staying on top in the AFC East.”

LOL

Yeah, what a challenge that is. I’m guessing that over half the league wouldn’t have much trouble staying atop the AFC LEAST. Besides the Patriots it’s been a putrid division for years.

Since Brady’s been there the Fins have made the playoffs twice (’01 & ’08, Cassel’s season), and they split with the Pats in both those seasons, and have had a winning record only once since ’05.

The Jets have made the playoffs 6 times and given the Pats their biggest challenge since ’01, but with Sanchez, Pennington, Bollinger, and a washed up Favre as their QBs, that was futile. They split with the Pats in 5 of their 6 playoff seasons too.

The Bills, LOL, I think that everyone’s familiar with the Bills playoff futility since ’01, and they’ve had only one winning season (’04), and have beaten that Patriots only twice in 26 games since ’01.

Does it get any easier? No, it doesn’t. Belicheat can thank the football gods that he’s in that division along with the fact that Bledsoe got hurt in ’01 so that Belicheat’s hand would be forced in playing Brady. Otherwise he may have been released by the Pats too.

Does it get any easier? No, it doesn’t. Belicheat can thank the football gods that he’s in that division along with the fact that Bledsoe got hurt in ’01 so that Belicheat’s hand would be forced in playing Brady. Otherwise he may have been released by the Pats too.
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Don’t you love this excuse from the crybabies.

You know what other team had a long run of success and played in a bad division? Montana and the 49ers. But you never here how bad Bill Walsh was (8-24) before Montana.

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Preseason rankings are nothing more than conversation pieces. However if one were to assume that Denver and New England are somewhat equal teams, the Broncos have a more difficult schedule by way of drawing the NFC West in inter-conference play.
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TEARS of envy from so many bitter fans of losing teams….
Pats can’t help who’s in their division only capitalize from it which they seem to do…they also draft close to last evey year & still play the #1 seeds from every other division & still win so the crying about the division is weak to say the least…more like just an excuse to whine some…

There was no chance of Brady ever being released. He had surprisingly supplanted the #2 guy (I forget, Chris Redman maybe?) in ’01 going into the season and was already challenging Bledsoe for the job.

Dismissing Belichick’s remarkable work as just being a function of having Tom Brady is shortsighted. He’s done an amazing job of plugging in players and keeping the Pats ready to win. His GM skills aren’t quite as amazing but his coaching, game management, etc are without peer.

Amazing how many can’t figure out that the Patriots were the scapegoat for what every team was doing (as admitted to by Bill Cowher and others), in the same way N.O. did for bounty-gate. Get over it, they are just plain better than everyone else.

the main reason those team end up the way they do is because of the PATRIOTS laying 6 losses on them. The jets are nothing but mouth, trash talk, and rexy is better at advertising his wife on the web than football.
The dolphins just don’t seem to have “heart”
The bills? well it’s the Bills,what can you say?

Pats should have their best defense since the last NE SB victory IF 2 of the DTs mentioned come back strong from ACL injuries. Any significant improvement in pass rushing will translate into more INTs from a greatly improved secondary. This will probably be the Patriots best, last chance at a Super Bowl championship with Brady at the helm.

Seriously, every time you guys make a list it’s embarrassingly bad. Granted, preseason power rankings are pointless, and there’s nothing concrete to base them on other than the prior seasons performance, so either way the list would have no purpose. The Final 4 was so obvious you may as well have started with it.

“TEARS of envy from so many bitter fans of losing teams….
Pats can’t help who’s in their division only capitalize from it which they seem to do…they also draft close to last evey year & still play the #1 seeds from every other division & still win so the crying about the division is weak to say the least…more like just an excuse to whine some…”

To the contrary, just stating facts. There’s been no easier division in the NFL during the Brady era Pats. That is a fact.

Otherwise, the Pats can prove how great they are by winning a Super Bowl without cheating. Someone said that all teams did it, OK, let’s assume that’s true, but now all teams are not doing it and the Pats, who did it better than everyone else with Ernie Adams, can’t win a SB in 9 seasons while being the favorite to do so in most if not all of those seasons, and with Brady playing much better than he did from ’01 thru ’04.

Keep jabbering Pats apologists, but the fact is that that Pats can’t win one without cheating, whether others cheated or not being irrelevant. Just because some kid in the class got the highest grade by cheating better than everyone else doesn’t mean that he was the best student in the class now, does it.

That’s a fact. Of course Belicheat and the team can prove us all wrong by actually winning one without cheating.

1. The Pats defense is very weak up the middle. Even before Wilfork got hurt, I recall Vlad MF Ducasse literally burying him into the endzone on a TD run in week 2. Vlad Ducasse! With or without him they will struggle to stop the run.

2. The pass defense has improved on paper, but you can’t pencil them into being the AFC’s legion of boom just yet. Browner will 4 games and their safeties are average. BB’s defensive backfields always play a bit above their heads, so I’m sure they’ll be good, but that’s not enough when you’re giving up 130+ rushing ypg.

3. That said, they’ll hold teams to enough FGs and generate enough turnovers to be an effective defense.

4. Without Gronk that offense just doesn’t scare anybody. Brady has never needed elite skill players to be productive, but at his age he needs them to take some pressure off. Julian Edelman is a marginal talent who wouldn’t amount to much on plenty of rosters besides admittedly excellent special teams play. Against the better pass defenses, they’ll struggle like they did last year.

5. They can rely on their running game, and of course Brady will make something out of nothing in the event Amendola and Gronk can’t stay on the field, so their offense will be balanced enough to still be a top 10-12 overall offense. It’s just going to be tough for them to move the ball on teams like the Broncos, Chiefs, Packers, and Bengals – and they play all of them in ’14.

The AFC East was the second best division (behind NFC West) last year based on win/loss records.

The Pats being great, also makes it harder for Bills, Jets and Dolphins to make playoffs. If they all go 0-2 vs Pats, they need to go 10-4 at least to make playoffs at 10-6, no small task.

Remember, not long ago the vaunted NFC West was a complete joke division with SEA winning it at 7-9. Football is cyclical brotha. The consistency the Pats have won at, in the salary cap era, is impressive.

I love the tears from crybaby haters I dip my crackers in a nice bowl of sweet salty tears.

Our coach cheated better than yours.
Our QB is better looking than yours.
Our team had more white people than yours (must be racist)
Our QB actually married someone above him and not some gold digger (insert any manning)

Again, every team was ‘cheating’ and videotaping because it was legal. Goodell sent that memo about videotaping to every team in the NFL, not just the Patriots, because every team was videotaping. People continuing to bring up the bogus Spygate need to get a life because they’re obviously jealous of the Patriot’s continuing success as the NFL’s reigning dynasty.

Well this is interesting, I do think the pats are the second best team in the AFC; behind Denver. I think these rankings are ridiculous. I think the 49ers have alot of problems going on right now, everyone wants more money and the qb got overpaid, plus no secondary. I think they should be behind the patriots in rankings. the seahawks are no longer the number one team based on their offseason; lost 2 key players of their defense in thurmond and bryant. plus i think maxwell is NOT a good cb, hes gonna be burned all year. plus the jets appear to have been doing alot of things right this offseason, they already had a top 5 defense and they added decker, johnson, and a pass catching te in amaro.

And as much as you people cry about the Pats “cheating” to win SBs, sideline taping was not illegal before 2007, so the only game you can actually claim the Pats “cheated” in was the one against the Jets that opened the 2007 season.

“TEARS of envy from so many bitter fans of losing teams….
Pats can’t help who’s in their division only capitalize from it which they seem to do…they also draft close to last evey year & still play the #1 seeds from every other division & still win so the crying about the division is weak to say the least…more like just an excuse to whine some…”

To the contrary, just stating facts. There’s been no easier division in the NFL during the Brady era Pats. That is a fact.

Otherwise, the Pats can prove how great they are by winning a Super Bowl without cheating. Someone said that all teams did it, OK, let’s assume that’s true, but now all teams are not doing it and the Pats, who did it better than everyone else with Ernie Adams, can’t win a SB in 9 seasons while being the favorite to do so in most if not all of those seasons, and with Brady playing much better than he did from ’01 thru ’04.

Keep jabbering Pats apologists, but the fact is that that Pats can’t win one without cheating, whether others cheated or not being irrelevant. Just because some kid in the class got the highest grade by cheating better than everyone else doesn’t mean that he was the best student in the class now, does it.

That’s a fact. Of course Belicheat and the team can prove us all wrong by actually winning one without cheating
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So if the Pats can’t win without cheating (your logic), what happened in 2002, 2005 and 2006?

Did they take a couple years off from cheating? How come they didn’t win 6 in a row?

And flip your thoughts, if they were still cheating in 2007 and 2011 would that have meant Tyree drops that ball? Samuel makes the interception? Manningham doesn’t make that catch?

Instead posting nonsense just say ” I hate good teams…unless they’re my team”. That would make more sense

Julian Edelman is a marginal talent who wouldn’t amount to much on plenty of rosters.

Edleman:1056 yrds
Welker: 778 yrds, many big drops(again).

The pass defense has improved on paper.

The pass D was good last year when Talib was on the field, he just got hurt at bad times(like the last 2 AFC Championship gms). Revis has been durable over the yrs, besides the ACL, and is a better player.

Try as hard as you can to poke holes, but this is a good team, the best since 2007. They need some things to go right, like everyone does, but they have a legit shot. It’s hard to repeat(Seattle), It’s hard to get back when you lose the big game (Denver) and SF, while talented, had a bad offseason. Much July optimism.

It is easy to understand the hatred towards the successful Patriots. Easier to say they cheated rather than to say they are a so much better managed and coached team and just simply beat our pathetic butts year after year.

Hands down the most overrated team in the countdown thus far. Simply by playing in the AFC Least, the Patriots are guaranteed passage to the postseason… once they get there, they’ll be bounced by their betters yet again.

Micknangold has it a little bit backwards. While the Patriots run defense wasn’t overly stout at the outset of 2013, it didn’t go into a free fall until Kelly, Mayo, and Wilfork ALL went onto IR (around week 6). There is no reason why the run defense shouldn’t improve with their return to service. Go Pats!

P.incorrect has been duped. Duped by the best record in the NFL over the past 13 years, and no they don’t just play teams in their own division, I believe they take on all comers who look at that game as their personal Super Bowl. Duped by 8 AFC championship appearances. Duped by 5 Super Bowl appearances and three wins, and Duped by no end in sight. I cannot predict the future like most of you savants can but I do know the winning and subsequent whining will go on for years to come.

cccpsimian says:
Jul 21, 2014 11:27 AM
Hands down the most overrated team in the countdown thus far. Simply by playing in the AFC Least, the Patriots are guaranteed passage to the postseason… once they get there, they’ll be bounced by their betters yet again.

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Hands down one of the dumbest comments yet.

Can we stop with “overrated” it’s pretty lame.

Tell us how a team that was # 3 in the NFL in scoring last season with new WR And missing the best TE In the NFL for 9 games is “overrated”

Tell us how a team that just signed the best or second best DB in the NFL and will get back the middle of there D that they lost early last season is “overrated”

Tell us how some jobber (you) hasit all figuerd out and everyone els is wrong.

12-4 as usual since the AFC Least remains a piece of cake (and as long as Geno and Manuel are still there, it will remain like that).

The defense is finally scary after years of mediocrity that was compensated by the offense putting points like crazy.

Lack of weapons (and the best one is an injury-prone) and Brady’s possible regression (2013 was his worst season in 10 years, even though ESPN pundits want to put him on the MVP race because of his GW drives and because he is Tom Brady).

I’d give them a 30% chance of being the AFC team on the Super Bowl and 80% of being at least on the AFC Championship.

Lack of weapons (and the best one is an injury-prone) and Brady’s possible regression (2013 was his worst season in 10 years, even though ESPN pundits want to put him on the MVP race because of his GW drives and because he is Tom Brady) are the obstacles.

as far as run defense, the Pats give that to you as a gift so you can burn up the clock while the Pats are soaking in their lead in points. You may remember how in the regular season, Denver put up monster run yardage but could not win in the end. Likewise when the Ravens were absorbing the worst home beat down in their existence, the running yards were their to take. So, go ahead and take those yards and glory in Pats “lousy” run defense while you are running the ball from 14 points behind.

Jets fan here…And as much as I hope it’s wrong, can’t fault the ranking…first, these rankings are kind of dumb…Who the heck cares if the Pats are 4, 5, or 10? They should easily make the playoffs and most likely as AFC East champs assuming health stays in check (always a BIG if)…That machine is too well oiled to not be a 3 or 4 seed in the AFC regardless of their competition. Then you just see where the chips lie in the Divisional round and go from there.

Of course, it just takes 1 of those 40 sacks Brady had last year to pull something here or break something there and all bets are off…And I hope the Jets are there to capitalize on it…

Micknangold has it a little bit backwards. While the Patriots run defense wasn’t overly stout at the outset of 2013, it didn’t go into a free fall until Kelly, Mayo, and Wilfork ALL went onto IR (around week 6). There is no reason why the run defense shouldn’t improve with their return to service. Go Pats!

No, not at all. Here’s your weekly rushing totals against the Patriots defense leading up to game 6.

Try as hard as you can to poke holes, but this is a good team, the best since 2007. They need some things to go right, like everyone does, but they have a legit shot. It’s hard to repeat(Seattle), It’s hard to get back when you lose the big game (Denver) and SF, while talented, had a bad offseason. Much July optimism.

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Best since 07, but in a very different way. Balanced attack, stout defense. The first 6 games the defense last year looked great. Add 2 CB’s, one with a golden ticket to the Hall of Fame and still in his prime…I can’t wait.

Some people always bring up yards given up with the Pats. Here is a hint…Bill doesn’t care about yards. He never has. He knows that stat ends up skewed by the end of a game, when a team they are playing go into desperation mode. Look at points given, and 3rd downs. Pats were pretty good at 3rd downs until Vince and the rest of the middle of the D went on IR last year. Points given…still was pretty damn good through the year.

Bring on Denver. Beat them once already with a decimated team. Pats have to play for Home field int he playoffs. Stay out of that hell hole in Denver. Sea level teams never play well there.

By the way, the Patriots are still going to win the division. I’m not saying they aren’t still a very good team. I just pointed out their weaknesses in addition to acknowledging their strengths…I guess being accuarate is hating.

Didn’t I mention how they’re typically a bend but don’t break defense? (Well, maybe that was implicit but I did say they get turnovers and hold teams to FGs, two traits of a bend don’t break defense.

Wilfork got hurt in the 1rst qtr of the Atl game(game 4). He played in 3 full gms last yr. Tommie Kelly, another Pro Bowler(no longer at that level, but was playing well) and Mayo were hurt in the NO game(game 6). With McCourty, that’s 4 Pro Bowlers up the middle. In the 3 full games they were all healthy, the Pats gave up 37 pts. Total. Those are the accurate facts. The Pats have weaknessess, but up the middle isn’t one of them. The author of the article correctly pointed out their weaknessess, although, I don’t think losing Blount is a big deal. They didn’t lose anyone of note, but added some good players and have a lot of key players coming back from injury. Watch out.

Any of the top 5 teams, including the Pats, can win the big one with a hot habnd at the right time.

Last yar Seahawks (I am a Hawks fan) were #4 in preseason here at PFT. They beat the #1-49ers in a close contest for the NFC, and the #2 Broncos for the SB.

So what I guess I am saying, as I said on Denver’s ranking is that any of the top 8 teams could get hot and win.

How hot? in 2012 the Seahawks were rated #22 in preseason and in their final game were 31 seconds away from the NFC Championship game when Atlanta got hot.
I don’t seriously believe they could have beaten 49ers for the NFCCG but they were certainly better than #22 in the preseason.

You say “they haven’t done anything since spygate” Yet the year of/post “Spygate” they were 90seconds, one David Tyree hailmary helmet catch away from being the greatest team to ever play the game, or even in sports history. Simultaneously crowning them with the title of being the greatest dynasty in football history.

If you define a teams success or discredit such by either one play (or lack there of) or by an exemplary punishment via technicality, then you my friend are an yahoo idiot. And in all probability, just a lonely jealous fan of a perennially losing team. And you know thats the truth! Apples

I really wish the league would stop promoting and protecting the Pats.

Have we not all had enough of these “we were duped” covers for lack of class and ethics?

No way are Pats a top 5 NFL team… AFC, yes, but not NFL…. I see them more in the 8-12 range, though they will win division and have good record… and I do think Brady is the best of his era…….don’t think much of BB or Kraft though